Airline travel within Europe has grown significantly in recent years, with a wealth of new airlines competing for passengers with established companies. To compete for a share of the European air travel market, each airline must maximize its chances at success. In addition to meeting operating and safety standards within the industry, airlines must operate efficiently in all areas from customer retention to management of employees.
Attracting Customers
An airline operating in Europe must attract and retain customers in order to be successful. New customers can be attracted to a particular airline through advertising and special offers; existing customers may be retained by an individual airline via a loyalty scheme such as an airline club offering air miles and rewards. The effectiveness of an airline's advertising may be measured by the amount of revenue generated in relation to the financial cost of promotion and advertising.
Personnel Management
How well a European airline manages its personnel or employees is another crucial factor in determining the airline's likelihood of success or failure. Good personnel management can be measured both in terms of productivity and morale. Productivity refers to the effectiveness and efficiency of each airline employee in carrying out his job, and is typically measured in passenger miles per airline employee. Morale is more difficult to quantify, referring to the overall satisfaction of the airline employees. Poor morale can negatively impact airline operations, leading to canceled flights, thereby losing revenue and customer loyalty.
Fleet Management
Fleet management refers to how efficiently an airline uses its fleet of aircraft. Particularly in Europe, where many short-haul flights between European cities are only an hour or two in duration, it is important for airlines to maximize the use of each individual airplane, and the revenue it generates. Budget airlines such as Ryanair aim to maximize revenue from each airplane by selling as many seats as possible at low prices, with the first seats on any given flight usually available cheaply, the last seats being more expensive. Other airlines, such as British Airways, attempt to set generally higher prices for each seat, justified by superior service and punctuality. A higher median ticket price allows efficient fleet management without the need for all flights to be full.
Tags: airline employee, airlines such, each airline